Clones of Jemuel
The Clones of Jemuel were a group of, well, clones of Jemuel who were created by Dante Albrigant near Fragnar in the Third Age. Most clones turned out to be failures, but four of them were deemed salvageable. The four clones were trained as assassins and sent on missions deemed important for the Clergy of Mardük. One of them was possessed by the ambitious spirit of the true Jemuel who later took control of Dante's operations. The whereabouts of the three other clones are currently unknown, but it is assumed that Jemuel killed them because he saw them as mockeries of himself. History The body of Distreyd Thanadar XII, High Cleric of Mardük, was failing because he was leeching too much magical power from a shard of Krystallopyr to maintain the Plague of Nightmares over the Land of the Living, which in turn allowed his dark clergy and the Yamato Empire to take over other nations with relative ease in the Yamatian Invasion. To save himself from inevitable oblivion, Distreyd wished to become immortal and believed that the last ingredients needed to perform the dark ritual that would achieve that purpose were to be found within the Magestar which was holding his forces at bay. In order to breach the powerful mage school's wards and get past the skilled Masters of the Magestar, he'd need a mage with enough raw magic to accomplish such a task. Distreyd turned to his subordinate Dante Albrigant and ordered him to find a suitably powerful mage from the past who could be brought to life. Dante eventually found the perfect candidate: Jemuel, a cunning and ambitious mage who had been active during the Cardian War in the First Age. Dante began cloning experiments in his tower near Fragnar in Remon with the goal to bring Jemuel back to life and ostensibly bind him under Distreyd XII's will. However, Dante's true goal was to make the resurrected Jemuel loyal to himself and use him to usurp power from Distreyd in the clergy. The Experiments Early Specimens The early cloning attempts turned out to be disastrous. The clones looked monstrous and were tainted by unholy magic. These early failures did not stop Dante Albrigant who simply disposed of the failures and began his research anew. High Cleric Distreyd Thanadar XII threatened to cancel Dante's project if he did not have enough positive results, and Dante began working twice as hard to meet the given deadline. The Four Clones After years of research Dante finally succeeded in creating clones who were not failures. He tried different combinations of magic and succeeded in creating four different individuals by the time the Great War began. One of these four clones, Apprentice, eventually turned out to be what Dante had been after all this time. Shamshir :Main article: Shamshir Shamshir was the first successful clone. He was a brute who served as the muscle during the clones' missions, and he required guidance all the time because he was not terribly smart. He was often paired up with Venom with whom he assassinated Horacio Wizzentromp. Shamshir is presumed to be dead. Venom :Main article: Venom Venom was the second successful clone. He was an intelligent but weak black mage who served as the brains during the clones' missions. He devised many strategies but required the aid of his more muscular brothers to succeed in his missions. He was often paired up with Shamshir with whom he assassinated Horazio Wizzentromp. Venom is presumed to be dead. Rune :Main article: Rune Rune was the third successful clone. He differed from his "brothers" in that he was both intelligent and relatively strong for a mage. He worked for Dante only because he was forced to, but he had ambitions to usurp Dante's position and sacrifice the other clones in the process. He infiltrated the Grand Alliance under orders from Dante and became friends with many of the heroes of the Alliance. He began to question his loyalty to the Clergy of Mardük at the later stages of the Great War, but he carried out the plan and led the Alliance to the reactor core underneath Lutherin with disastrous results. Rune is presumed to be dead. Apprentice :Main article: Jemuel The Apprentice, who was the fourth successful clone, turned out to be the crowning achievement of Dante's research. This clone gained all of the original Jemuel's powers but seemingly none of his ambition. However, Dante was unaware that the lich Drishnek had helped Jemuel's soul to reach the Land of the Living and occupy the clone's body. The Apprentice regained his memories with assistance from Drishnek and murdered Dante during the Battle of Fragnar. He took the name Jemuel, orchestrated events that led to the Reactor Core Explosion and turning the Libaterran population against the Grand Alliance, and eventually founded the Magicracy of Alent. See also *Dante Albrigant *Distreyd Thanadar XII *Drishnek *Jemuel Category:Characters Category:Clergy of Mardük Category:Humans Category:Third Age